Post by ARfm Press Office on Dec 12, 2006 19:18:25 GMT
After two years I thought it time to write something about ARfm as it's been great fun but a bit of a roller coaster as well.
The run up to the start (November 2004) was hectic enough as it was. I'd been made redundant from the station I was working at and, out of the blue, I took a phone call from a man called Tom Reps. Tom runs Chilton Broadcast, he's well over 70 (although won't admit it) and his love of music certainly doesn't include anything remotely "rocky" but he felt the world, not least the UK, needed a good 24/7 Rock Station. Hell, who am I to argue?
So, a rock station was born, well… conceived. At the time we had no studio, no home and bugger all to broadcast on. Through Tom's efforts we linked up with AppleFM, the Exeter based station who were on Sky, and we struck a deal whereby we would provide Apple's weekend output from 12 noon to 12 midnight. From this deal, the name was also created. ARfm stood for Apple Rocks (your weekend) FM.
Premises found, studio equipment obtained we were suddenly ready to rock… oops, we needed presenters! First on board was Simon Gausden, a highly knowledgeable journalist from the West Midlands who'd written for a number of magazines. Next up, Paul Chamberlain who I'd worked with years before and who was a Southern Rock Guru, amongst other things. Paul was, unfortunately, retired from the music scene but didn't take much persuasion, thank god.
We needed a Prog Rock presenter and we suddenly had a stroke of pure luck. A friend of a friend of a friend (you get the gist) suggested we check out a chap working in hospital radio in Burton On Trent. Whilst I admire the Hospital radio fraternity for the hard work they do it wouldn't have been the first place I looked for a presenter but we got this chap to send in a demo and after a 20 second listen he was hired. His name… Paul Baker. (Some say he only got the job as he started his demo with some Whitesnake – a good move, I agree, but not the deciding factor). Paul has turned out to be one of the undiscovered gems of the radio and has rapidly built up a massive, nay legendary, following amongst the Prog Rock community.
Our last desire was for a couple of younger (read – up and coming) talented presenters to look after the more modern end of the rock spectrum. Great idea – approach the local College who run media courses and get them to host a show on Saturday lunchtimes. Bad idea… actually. Due to the strange regulations in this country of ours we had to undergo Police Checks (to make sure we were not dodgy characters), Site Checks (to make sure people with various disabilities could gain access) Insurance Checks (to make sure we were covered if one of the kids dropped a CD on their toe), Equipment Checks (to make sure our studio complied with Health & Safety Standards) and just about every other check possible. All the checks were passed with flying colours and whilst all this was going on the kids were creating their demo for the station, if that's what you can call it. Unfortunately, the only tutor in the college who knew anything about broadcasting had a heart attack in the middle of this and it was left to someone who had no idea to produce the demos. Bottom line… we gave up and Donna came to the rescue.
Donna was originally on board as a producer but, with no formal training and no notice she stepped in to host the College Rock Show on a temporary basis and she's still there now.
Then, the really clever idea… Why not launch at the NEC? Our official launch date was therefore the 24th November 2004 during the Sound Broadcast Trade Exhibition at the NEC. We would do two days of live shows from the NEC on the Wednesday and Thursday and follow that up with our first weekend shows on 27th November 04.
So, having constructed a nice little studio south of London, we decided to dismantle it all, chuck it into a truck, drive it 100 miles to Birmingham and reconstruct it there!
ARfm had arrive and the launch broadcast actually went well. We had Magnum, Jim Peterik (ex-Survivor/Pride Of Lions), Pete Way (UFO/Waysted) and Marillion as live guests, a great response to the broadcast (over 17000 listened on Sky over the two days) and loads of observers at the venue from the world of broadcasting. Former BBC Radio 1 jock Adrian Juste did a stint (along with Roger Day) and made us all feel rather humble at his sheer professionalism.
There was the downside of having to bring all the gear back and rebuild the studio in 24 hours… but we did it!
The first voice on ARfm's weekend broadcasts was Danny Bowes from Thunder and since then I don't think we've looked back.
Presenters have come and gone. Some have moved on to other (bigger) things like Chuck Thomas (to ITV) and Ben Fletcher (to the BBC – bet he misses us!). Others like Joe Dray moved too far away to make regular slots and Simon Gausden to another station but in the main the hardcore are still here.
We've found some great new talent as well… Lightnin' Jack Cane, Dave Hewitt, Ben Fletcher for example, and more will follow.
In two years we have had some great guests, Alice Cooper, Toto, Styx, Greg Lake, Magnum, David Coverdale, Survivor, Glenn Hughes… the list goes on and one thing has become apparent – musicians like to be on ARfm. One well known musician told me during a live phone interview that one of the world's greatest living guitarists had told him ARfm was the station to get on to – there is no higher recommendation than that. OK, we have had our fair share of awkward guests as well!
We've linked up with some great people like the Firefest team and have some great sponsors who back us as much as they can. The labels are falling over themselves to get their product played on ARfm which means we must be making an impact.
The future? Who can tell?
We still aim to broadcast on more (bigger) platforms but money is always in short supply. We are fully licenced by the UK regulatory bodies and Copyright organisations but running ARfm is not cheap even though all the presenters and backroom staff work for FREE! (Everyone who gives up their weekends on ARfm has a full time day job)
We plan to expand, bring you more live shows and with your support make ARfm the best rock station on the planet.
Your help and donations ARE important. Copyright payments / Licences / Streams cost us £350 a month. The software we have to use to bring you programmes during the week £1000 a year.
With a recent donation from one of our loyal listeners we have been able to purchase two high-end Creative X-Fi Soundcards to improve the quality of the music we deliver to you.
We are not asking for a fortune, every £1 or $1 helps and donations can be made by Paypal or Cheque (Check).
Help us get another two years on our belts!
Steve Price
ARfm
The run up to the start (November 2004) was hectic enough as it was. I'd been made redundant from the station I was working at and, out of the blue, I took a phone call from a man called Tom Reps. Tom runs Chilton Broadcast, he's well over 70 (although won't admit it) and his love of music certainly doesn't include anything remotely "rocky" but he felt the world, not least the UK, needed a good 24/7 Rock Station. Hell, who am I to argue?
So, a rock station was born, well… conceived. At the time we had no studio, no home and bugger all to broadcast on. Through Tom's efforts we linked up with AppleFM, the Exeter based station who were on Sky, and we struck a deal whereby we would provide Apple's weekend output from 12 noon to 12 midnight. From this deal, the name was also created. ARfm stood for Apple Rocks (your weekend) FM.
Premises found, studio equipment obtained we were suddenly ready to rock… oops, we needed presenters! First on board was Simon Gausden, a highly knowledgeable journalist from the West Midlands who'd written for a number of magazines. Next up, Paul Chamberlain who I'd worked with years before and who was a Southern Rock Guru, amongst other things. Paul was, unfortunately, retired from the music scene but didn't take much persuasion, thank god.
We needed a Prog Rock presenter and we suddenly had a stroke of pure luck. A friend of a friend of a friend (you get the gist) suggested we check out a chap working in hospital radio in Burton On Trent. Whilst I admire the Hospital radio fraternity for the hard work they do it wouldn't have been the first place I looked for a presenter but we got this chap to send in a demo and after a 20 second listen he was hired. His name… Paul Baker. (Some say he only got the job as he started his demo with some Whitesnake – a good move, I agree, but not the deciding factor). Paul has turned out to be one of the undiscovered gems of the radio and has rapidly built up a massive, nay legendary, following amongst the Prog Rock community.
Our last desire was for a couple of younger (read – up and coming) talented presenters to look after the more modern end of the rock spectrum. Great idea – approach the local College who run media courses and get them to host a show on Saturday lunchtimes. Bad idea… actually. Due to the strange regulations in this country of ours we had to undergo Police Checks (to make sure we were not dodgy characters), Site Checks (to make sure people with various disabilities could gain access) Insurance Checks (to make sure we were covered if one of the kids dropped a CD on their toe), Equipment Checks (to make sure our studio complied with Health & Safety Standards) and just about every other check possible. All the checks were passed with flying colours and whilst all this was going on the kids were creating their demo for the station, if that's what you can call it. Unfortunately, the only tutor in the college who knew anything about broadcasting had a heart attack in the middle of this and it was left to someone who had no idea to produce the demos. Bottom line… we gave up and Donna came to the rescue.
Donna was originally on board as a producer but, with no formal training and no notice she stepped in to host the College Rock Show on a temporary basis and she's still there now.
Then, the really clever idea… Why not launch at the NEC? Our official launch date was therefore the 24th November 2004 during the Sound Broadcast Trade Exhibition at the NEC. We would do two days of live shows from the NEC on the Wednesday and Thursday and follow that up with our first weekend shows on 27th November 04.
So, having constructed a nice little studio south of London, we decided to dismantle it all, chuck it into a truck, drive it 100 miles to Birmingham and reconstruct it there!
ARfm had arrive and the launch broadcast actually went well. We had Magnum, Jim Peterik (ex-Survivor/Pride Of Lions), Pete Way (UFO/Waysted) and Marillion as live guests, a great response to the broadcast (over 17000 listened on Sky over the two days) and loads of observers at the venue from the world of broadcasting. Former BBC Radio 1 jock Adrian Juste did a stint (along with Roger Day) and made us all feel rather humble at his sheer professionalism.
There was the downside of having to bring all the gear back and rebuild the studio in 24 hours… but we did it!
The first voice on ARfm's weekend broadcasts was Danny Bowes from Thunder and since then I don't think we've looked back.
Presenters have come and gone. Some have moved on to other (bigger) things like Chuck Thomas (to ITV) and Ben Fletcher (to the BBC – bet he misses us!). Others like Joe Dray moved too far away to make regular slots and Simon Gausden to another station but in the main the hardcore are still here.
We've found some great new talent as well… Lightnin' Jack Cane, Dave Hewitt, Ben Fletcher for example, and more will follow.
In two years we have had some great guests, Alice Cooper, Toto, Styx, Greg Lake, Magnum, David Coverdale, Survivor, Glenn Hughes… the list goes on and one thing has become apparent – musicians like to be on ARfm. One well known musician told me during a live phone interview that one of the world's greatest living guitarists had told him ARfm was the station to get on to – there is no higher recommendation than that. OK, we have had our fair share of awkward guests as well!
We've linked up with some great people like the Firefest team and have some great sponsors who back us as much as they can. The labels are falling over themselves to get their product played on ARfm which means we must be making an impact.
The future? Who can tell?
We still aim to broadcast on more (bigger) platforms but money is always in short supply. We are fully licenced by the UK regulatory bodies and Copyright organisations but running ARfm is not cheap even though all the presenters and backroom staff work for FREE! (Everyone who gives up their weekends on ARfm has a full time day job)
We plan to expand, bring you more live shows and with your support make ARfm the best rock station on the planet.
Your help and donations ARE important. Copyright payments / Licences / Streams cost us £350 a month. The software we have to use to bring you programmes during the week £1000 a year.
With a recent donation from one of our loyal listeners we have been able to purchase two high-end Creative X-Fi Soundcards to improve the quality of the music we deliver to you.
We are not asking for a fortune, every £1 or $1 helps and donations can be made by Paypal or Cheque (Check).
Help us get another two years on our belts!
Steve Price
ARfm